George Osborne, the former Chancellor who now heads government relations for AI at OpenAI, has criticised opposition to building artificial intelligence datacentres in the UK, characterising it as "nimbyism" holding back the nation. He argues that if Britain refuses to allow these facilities to be constructed, they will simply be built elsewhere—particularly in the United States—resulting in a loss of technological sovereignty and control over where critical AI infrastructure is physically located.

Protests against datacentres have occurred across the UK, including in central London, Devon and outside the Scottish Parliament, with concerns centring on visual impact, enormous water and energy consumption, lack of local employment prospects, and displacement of potential affordable housing. The UK government has classified AI datacentres as critical national infrastructure to expedite their construction, whilst the Green Party has called for a moratorium; however, academic Verity Harding of Cambridge University suggests broader anxieties about AI oversight and regulation underlie public opposition to these facilities, which coincides with senior figures from OpenAI and Anthropic meeting world leaders at the United Nations this week to discuss AI governance.